Technical Field
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus, imaging method, and imaging operation control program.
Description of Related Art
An imaging apparatus that obtains parallax information based on two images imaged by two imaging sections has been conventionally known.
Patent Literature 1 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2014-130429) describes a system that calculates a parallax value for pixels showing the same position through a matching process between a standard image and a comparative image by two imaging sections to extract a parallax value group corresponding to a feature of a parallax value distribution of a target, and to detect an image portion corresponding to the extracted parallax value group as a region showing the target. In this system, when the number of valid parallax values included in the extracted parallax value group is less, the accuracy of extracting the parallax value group corresponding to the target is lowered, resulting in deterioration in accuracy of recognizing the target. For this reason, in the system described in Patent Literature 1, in order to increase the number of parallax values included in the extracted parallax value group, exposure amount control that determines the exposure amount of each imaging section for use in a subsequent imaging operation is executed.
More specifically, in the system described in Patent Literature 1, the number of parallax values for the image portion of the target is calculated from the parallax information obtained from the image imaged at the presently set exposure amount, and the exposure control is executed when the calculated number of parallax values is out of the previously defined range. When the calculated number exceeds the upper limit value of the defined range, the exposure amount is deceased at a certain volume. When the calculated number lowers the lower limit value of the defined range, the exposure amount is increased at a certain volume. By executing such exposure amount control, a contrast of the image portion showing the target can be enhanced in the subsequent imaging operation, and the accuracy of the matching process between the standard image and the comparative image can be improved. As a result, the number of valid parallax values included in the parallax value group of the image portion of the target is increased, and the accuracy of recognizing the target is improved.